Jeremy Rowell

September 25, 2007

Drew Champlin

Some thoughts from defensive coordinator Jeremy Rowell. FWIW, I’m in the camp that believes the guys are being put in the right place, but they’re not getting the job done.

You can’t be too happy with the defense right now, right?

Nope. I’m not. It’s fundamental stuff. We’ve got to tackle people. We’re there (in position), we’ve just got to tackle folks and we’re not doing it right now. It always comes and goes. I don’t know if it’s like the shanks in golf. I remember a couple of years ago we’re swearing up and down we’re the worst tackling team in America one game and then the next game we’re not. Is it because we don’t work on it? No, because we work on it all the time.

It’s being disciplined enough to go through your fundamentals and do what you’ve been taught to do. We’ve got to keep working harder on it and paying attention to detail is going to make it better.

There was an adjustment that Shawn Todd alluded to that you guys made against ULL

Instead of reading the end, they were reading the interior linemen on a zone read play. They hit us the first time and got eight yards. After that, we adjusted on the sidelines and had it fit right. But we’ve got to do better tackling.  We had them fourth and something, they threw the screen and we had two guys tackling behind the line of scrimmage and we missed it. Same thing on another one, we had them fourth down in the fourth quarter when they scored, possibly more than once. We’ve got to make the plays to get them off the field.

What kind of message do you send to guys who aren’t getting it done? Pull them?

You can’t necessarily take your best players off the field and put somebody who probably hasn’t has many reps as they’ve had. We rotate guys pretty good and folks get reps. I wish I could say it was one person, but it’s a rash throughout the whole defense. Everybody had their opportunities to miss tackles and some people missed one and some missed five.

How many tackles was it that you guys missed?

It was around 25. If you miss 25 tackles, it’s going to be a long night for you. Obviously we had opportunities — we stopped them and we did stuff, but the series we did not do stuff we were supposed to, there it went.

Who’s playing well right now?

(Cornerbacks)Leodis (McKelvin) and Elbert Mack are playing pretty well. Boris (Lee) played hard the other night, he was sick. (DT) Marcus Pittman is playing pretty good for us right now. Marcus is playing one of the best up front right now and doing a very good job.
We’ve got to have some more consistency and do a better job tackling. If you tackle folks, you’ve got a chance to stop them. If you don’t tackle them, you’re not going to stop them.

Monday afternoon tidbits

September 24, 2007

Drew Champlin

Not really that many of them, but…

...WR Austin Silvoy will play Saturday. He’s fully recovered from his concussion.

....RB Kenny Cattouse was the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week.

...How’s this for a quote. “We’re not tackling anybody. My sister and my wife can run through our defense.“ from head coach Larry Blakeney at the press conference.

...Troy is dead last in the country in run defense, at an even 300 yards per game.

...Coaches felt good about Whibbs’ performance. He kicked last week with a thigh bruise, and said he got a little lazy on his second-to-last XP attempt and pulled it to the left. Other than that, he was outstanding in all three areas.

....Not kicking to Leodis McKelvin helped Troy start at its own 34. Of course, offensive coordinator Tony Franklin would love to start at his own 1-inch line, because that gives you more grass. On one kickoff return, they snuck in Kennard Burton to replace Bear Woods in that first line of defense in front of returners McKelvin and DuJuan Harris. In front of them are usually Sean Dawkins and Bear Woods, but Woods is a linebacker who can block well on the returns, but coaches don’t want him returning kicks (though I thought he did a good enough job). This will only help Troy.

....Omar Haugabook is one of the best quarterbacks in the country, yet no one is talking about him. HE’s 12th nationally in total offense (333.75 yards per game), but he’s thrown four picks. Problem is, three of them came off tipped passes. No one knows that though because they don’t watch the Sun Belt.

No news is good news, right? Just wanted to throw some stuff out there.

Monday links

Drew Champlin

From me, here’s some leftover notes from Saturday night, leading with Sherrod Martin hoping he’ll play Saturday against ULM.

ULM was off last week, so not much there yet, but read News-Star ULM beat writer Paul Letlow’s blog. He’s thinking we could see 100 points Saturday (combined, obviously). I would agree with that hypothesis.

Here’s the most recent ULM article I found, from the Monroe News-Star on ULM playing fresh faces.

In other news, my fantasy team is 0-3. One of the guys on my opponent’s team was Brian Westbrook, who had three TDs and over 100 yards rushing and receiving. Thanks, Lions defense. (no I don’t have the Lions defense, but my Bears weren’t much better)

Check back later today for some quick hits from the weekly media day.

Mike Gundy’s rant

September 23, 2007

Drew Champlin

Just some video on a rainy Sunday from OSU head coach Mike Gundy on a column in the Daily Oklahoman about QB Bobby Reid.

Here’s the video of Gundy’s tirade and here’s the column in question.

Feel free to share your thoughts.

Troy-ULL REWIND

Drew Champlin

Some thoughts before I make the 450-mile trip back to Dothan.

Kenny Cattouse ran wild. For some reason, ULL is easy to run on. It was good to see him do that even when he wasn’t 100 percent and couldn’t cut like he normally does. He’s a really underrated back that Troy is fortunate to have. DuJuan Harris keeps getting better and better and he’s one fast dude.

ULL was scared beyond belief to kick the ball within 20 yards of Leodis McKelvin. They would shank punts out of bounds or kick off to the upback on purpose so he wouldn’t get the ball. Good strategy or being scared? I think it cost them, because field position worked in Troy’s favor every time. Troy’s average starting position, I think, was their 35, and it seemed like they were around midfield all the time.

Josh Allen came up big in the absence of Austin Silvoy. That position has been the most productive all season and that’s how it works in this offense.

Greg Whibbs punted the ball well and got the ball off quickly. I will again state that watching Adrian Vera punt in pregame warmups is like watching Mark McGwire take batting practice when he was in his prime. It’s too bad that never translated onto the field because he can really boom it.

What stops Troy’s offense? Itself, that’s the general consensus. I can’t wait to see it stack up with Arkansas State.

THE BAD - Tackling on defense. It was, especially in the first half, pitiful again. ULL shouldn’t be running for 335 yards on this team when the Troy players, I think, are pretty good. But they got better and played much better in the second half, so credit to them. But Arkansas State runs a similar scheme and has better players. Troy has to wash that butter off their hands better before the game starts.

HOW BOUT THIS? - Defensive back Sherrod Martin told me after the game that he’s going to try to play next week against ULM. He’s missed the last two full games and pretty much all of the Florida game after breaking his hand on the third play of that game. He’ll practice, wear a big pad on his hand, and play. The only problem would be catching interceptions, but it can be done. His leadership and experience will be welcomed back.

I didn’t notice any other injuries, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any. We didn’t know about Silvoy until the weekend.